Problem, Yes they all say where to get the source. Great. But I may seem clueless. But, how do I get started? The first program to write is hello world! Great but, none of the books state what type of format to create it in (notepad?) I unzipped the Perl application and hey that doesn't work. I've read through the books and am I just missing something. I have basic understanding of programming. I'm using a ms DOS based computer. And I believe I have installed Perl correctly. Just would really like to know what I'm missing about this. I understand complied languages. I've read through three perl books. I understand arrays, loops, all that kind of stuff. So it seems silly but at this point after reading three books. I'd just like a clue as to what I'm doing wrong. Thanks

Re: [ClueLess] All right, I have three Perl books, one is the Camel book.
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If you've downloaded the source code for Perl then you won't be able to run any Perl programs until you have built and installed the compiler. Instructions for doing this are in the INSTALL file that comes with the Perl distribution.

However, judging by your reference to Notepad, you might be on a Windows machine. In that case it's really not at all easy to build Perl from scratch (you probably don't have a C compiler for a start). In this case it's far easier to download the prebuilt Windows version from ActiveState.

Perl programs are plain text files. Creating them in Notepad will be fine, but at some point you'll probably want to get a better editor.

Re: [ClueLess] All right, I have three Perl books, one is the Camel book.
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Can't Post

Perl is similar to HTML in that they are both text files. To run Perl programs with a browser you must also have an http server installed on your computer. It is fairly easy to install Apache ( http://www.apache.org/dist/httpd/binaries/win32/README.html ) on a Windows computer. Then after you have Perl installed on your computer you can run scripts through a browser just like you would do on the internet. -------------------------------------------------

Re: [ClueLess] All right, I have three Perl books, one is the Camel book.
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Ok is Perl a code like html where it is written in text format then ran on a browser (different platform)?

Or can it be like Pascal (old school) or Qbasic and exist in a shell format that checks for errors?

Perl is plain text like HTML. That's really the only similarlity.

Perl is not run in a browser[1]. One of the most common uses for Perl is in writing CGI programs. In this case a browser makes a request to a web server, the web server runs the CGI program and the output from the CGI program is returned to the browser. The CGI program does not run in the browser, it runs on the web server.

[1] Actually ActiveState have a PerlScript plugin for browsers that allows Perl to be run in a browser, but it's very rarely used.